Blog Post 21: Thirsty? Here's Some LEMONADE

The video we watched in class today called "Lemonade" was interesting but it did not really catch my attention. I was into it for only a little portion of it. But what Beyoncé did with putting all of these parts of her album was very unique. I was not into it but it was still entertaining. I think it was a new kind of art in my view. I have never seen one of these kind of videos before and I give two thumbs up for the idea. Throughout the entire short film, all of the women including Beyoncé, were always lonely. There was only one part of the film where Beyoncé had a scene with Jay Z and another one with her dad. But all of the women seemed to have been broken hearted and were never surrounded by men. It explained that black women being left by black men has been passed down from generation to generation. This short film can relate with 'Song of Solomon', 'This Is How You Lose Her', but I can't really tell how it relates with 'The Crucible'. It can relate with 'Song of Solomon' because in the book, the black women in it, have no husband and are left alone with their family. It relates with 'This Is How You Lose Her' because men often cheat on their women and women have to deal with it. From what I understood, the meaning behind the film was that when Beyoncé was being cheated on, she was trying to recover and was trying to forget about him and wonder why he did that to her. Then she can't really handle it so she went back to him. In my opinion, Beyoncé was not weak for taking him back. I don't think she was weak because she actually loved him and because of that, she trusted him once again and gave him another chance to prove himself to her.

Blog Post 20: We've Come... to the End of the ROOOOAD

Out of all the three stories that we have read throughout this English course, I would have to go with 'This Is How You Lose Her' on being my favorite. This Yunior kid seems to be in his young ages. I like it because I can relate a lot with it. I am not saying that I would treat a girl like trash neither that I cheat on them but in the way that he thinks... most of the time. Like when Junior says, "You, Junior, have a girlfriend named Alma, who has a long tender horse neck and a big Dominican ass that seems to exist in a fourth dimension beyond jeans." (Junior pg. 47) That sounds like something I would have said if I had a girlfriend with a fat ass. Doesn't mean that I'm perverted, I am just being real. I can relate with this dude in so many ways. It seems as if we keep reading, we find out conflicts that a certain character faces. Common threads throughout the novel include machismo and men cheating on their women. The way the Junot Díaz explains these themes to the audience is by giving short stories and having a viewpoint from both, the man and the women's side. Overall I think all stories went very well even though they were not all in order, which really doesn't matter. I wish the short story 'The Sun, The Moon, The Stars' could have been a full length novel to see what actually led them to come to an end of their relationship. This is representative to the Latino culture because it shows that Latinos have a strong belief of machismo. Juno Díaz is telling the audience about how machismo is viewed in the eyes of Latino men and women & that it should not really interfere in a relationship.

Blog Post 19: The Anatomy of it all!

The way short story, 'Miss Lora', is set up differently from how the other short stories in the past have been set up in. I do not understand why Junot Díaz decided to divide it up in smaller sections even though the story is already small enough. Each time a part is divided up into a chapter and enters into a new one, it changes up the way the story was going. In the beginning, the first chapter ended with saying, "You'd fuck anything, someone jeered. And he had given that someone the eye. You make that sound like it's a bad thing" (Yunior pg.153) Right after, the second chapter starts off with, "Your brother. Dead now a year and sometimes you still feel a fulgurating sadness over it even though he really was a super asshole at the end." (Yunior pg.153) The way it ends, compared to the way that it starts off to a new chapter, changes the way in how the reader was reading it. For me, it has a different tone. I believe there is a different tone because when I am done reading one chapter, I feel some type of way towards it. Then, when I start reading the next one, I feel differently about how the reading is given to me. A common thread amongst all the short stories would be the men always cheating on their women. Throughout the short stories, women are kept being cheated on which basically is presented as "machismo".

Blog Post 18: Haha

Life is just great to be honest. There are many of great reasons to be alive. I do not understand why people kill themselves. Maybe because they just cannot handle how good their lives are or maybe because they just hate their lives. Most people do not appreciate being able to live another day. Ungrateful ass motherfuckers. We have got to live life to the fullest. For some, living life to the fullest means to get drunk or high. For others, it simply means to hang with friends, listen to loud music, and just being themselves. The point is to just enjoy life. Class has been pretty chill this week. I would say that my favorite part of the whole week so far would be when Mr. Vazquez ended Luis's life. But I would agree the Luis had a pretty good comeback after all of those shots were fired at him.

Blog Post 17: Picture Perfect

In my opinion, the author of 'This Is How You Lose Her', gave the short story 'Flaca' a candid type tone, which means to be truthful or straightforward. He goes back and narrates the story of how he met Veronica Hardrada, who is also known as 'Flaca'. In this short story, he seems very calm. He doesn't seem to be immature about it in any way. She is the only one who he says that he loves in the story so far. "Your left eye used to drift when you were tired or upset." (Yunior pg.81) He shows that he remembers, that actually had something for her, and that he was happy with her. He has not said or shown that for the other girls that we have met already. I picked this picture and this quote because he is very honest with the audience that he loved her, and the picture shows that he has memories of being with her. As of now, my favorite short story has been 'Alma'. I liked this one because the girl, Alma, did not put up with him. Once she found out that he had been cheating on her, she acted quickly and broke up with him. I like it because it shows that no one should put up with someone else's bullshit. It showed that women also have character, "A cocksucker, a punk motherfucker, a fake-ass Dominican." (Alma pg.50)

Blog Post 16: Who Run the World...GIRLS!

In the novel 'This Is How You Lose Her', Magda, Nilda, Alma, and Yasmin all have something in common, they all let men treat them in a bad way. Men use them as if they were toys. These girls do not really get appreciated by their man. But what is different about all of these characters, is that they all handle their situations differently. They all have different ideas of what love is. A similarity also is that once they find out that their man did them dirty with another girl, that is when they all react. For example Magda and Alma. When Magda got cheated on by Yunior, she sorta started to manipulate him and basically had him on a leash. Alma on the other hand, when she found Yunior's journal, she patiently waited for him and then threw a whole lot of trash talk to him and then left him, "A cocksucker, a punk motherfucker, a fake-ass Dominican. She claims: You have a little penis, no penis, and worst of all that you like curried pussy." (Alma pg.50) But what was weird was Yunior's reaction to Alma, "Baby, you say, baby, this is all part of my novel. This is how you lose her" (Junior pg.50) LIKE WTF IS HIS PROBLEM!? His girl just left him and he's just chilling? The short story 'Otravida, Otravez', is narrated by Yasmin. The way she narrates her view of being with someone is way different from Junior. She sounds very mature about her relationship but Junior on the other hand is just playing with girls when he is narrating a story. Yasmin talks passionatley about sex while Yunior is dirty minded about it. Ramon most likely did't know what to do when she gave him the letter since he's already with someone else.

Blog Post 15: Where are the Stars and the Moon?

The first chapter has a weird naming to it, "The Sun, the Moon, the Stars". I already read the whole chapter but I still do not really understand what the real meaning behind the title is. In chapter 1, Yunior and Magda's relationship is going downhill. He is basically whipped by Magda. In class we learned about "Machismo" which basically means that men have it their way. Well in chapter 1, Magda has total control of their relationship which is funny because she is the girl, not the man. "Our relationship wasn't the sun, the moon, and the stars, but it wasn't bullshit, either." (Yunior pg.19) I believe the meaning behind the title means that Yunior is the Sun, Magda is the Moon, and the people revolving around the are the Stars. They want something but the people keep getting in between them. They seemed to really like each other when they had first started their relationship, "Where are the stars? And she said, "They're a little lower, papi." (Yunior/Magda pg.21) In the beginning of the novel, Yunior starts off the whole story by saying, "I'm not a bad guy." (Yunior pg.1) Right away we sense that he is a bad guy in a way. He blames everything that happens on the people he surrounds himself with when really, it is his fault. The reason his and Magda's relationship is where it is at is only because of him. He cheated on her and now he is paying the consequences. He probably blames everyone else for actions because he is not mature enough total them himself. A major masculinity message that was put out there was the one about sex. When guys want sex, they get it when they want. But not for Yunior, he couldn't really get Magda for him to lay. She was stubborn about it. When Yunior asked Magda what her problem was, she responds to him by saying that she did not want to be there. Then Yunior feels insulted by Magda when she tells him this. It affects his identity because he is in his homeland and Magda makes him feel bad about it.